wounds made by the nails. Thus his own weight became his torture, ftill widening the wounds more and more, till all his precious blood streamed out of them. Behold your great Emmanuel lifted on a crofs betwixt heaven and earth, as if he had been unworthy of a place in either, hanging betwixt two thieves, as if he had been the greatest malefactor of the three. O what a fpectacle was your Redeemer to both heaven and earth when thus lifted up! An astonishment to angels! A derifion to the wicked! Compunction to believers! but a facrifice acceptable to the juftice of his eternal Father! Look on this moving fpectacle with deep forrow for fin that faftened him to the tree, and made him hang on thefe tormenting nails for several hours without comfort inward or outward. No way could he turn for eafe being fixed to the tree; if he ftirred his bleffed body at all, he was tormented afresh by the wounds of his hands and feet, on which the whole weight of his body did hang; if he had moved his head, which had the crown of thorns on it, the thorns would but pierce into it deeper, yet for all this he complained not; no figh or groan was heard from him, but what he offered up to God for your fins.

When the Son of Man was thus lifted up, obferve how the ftreams of his precious blood run down to the ground, and ftood in a little pool at the foot of the crofs, until the earth drank it up. Let this fight affect your hearts, and open all the fprings of forrow for fin that pierced him. Sit down at the foot of the cross, and receive the facred blood, as it falls, upon your hard hearts; let it drop on them, until it make them as foft as the ground it fell on. Let it drop on all the fores and wounds of your fouls, for it is the balm that must heal them. Obferve also the great extent of Chrift's fufferings at this time, they reached to all the parts of his body, and to all the powers of his foul: He fuffered in all his fenfes, his feeing, with the fcornful geftures of his enemies; his hearing, with their fcoffs and blafphemies; his fiell, with the noifome ftench of

Golgotha; his tafte, with gall and vinegar; his feeling, with the piercing nails and thorns. Behold his hands, that were still bestowing bleffings, now fixed with nails; his feet, that walked in God's ways, now digged through; his bowels, that yearned for finners, now fhrunk and dried up; his lips, that spoke as never man fpoke, now fwollen with blows. Now he fuffered on the cross till his ftrength was dried up like a potfberd, and bis tongue cleaved to his jaws; the fire of God's wrath fcorched him inwardly, which made him cry out, I thirst. His enemies mingled, at this time, a cup of vinegar and gall to him, which he refufed; but, glory to him, he refufed not the cup which his Father min gled to him, though filled with wrath and curfes; This he drank for us, though it filled his whole foul with anguish and made him roar and complain of his Father's deferting him: The arrows of the Almighty were within him, the poifon whereof drank up his fpirit. Amidft these fearful fufferings, our lifted Jefus expired willingly offering up himself, on the crofs, a propitiatory facrifice for us.

O believers, did Chrift lift up himself as a willing facrifice for you on the crofs, fee then to lift up the gates of your fouls to receive in this Saviour; let him have a joyful welcome into your fouls, and give him the best entertainment, the best affections, and the best service. Did he willingly ftretch out his arms to be nailed to the crofs for you? Then be not unwilling to ftretch out the arms of faith to embrace him; but fee to embrace him wholly in all his offices, of prophet, prieft, and king; be willing to be taught, faved, and ruled by him. Was Chrift lifted up on the crofs (as the brazen ferpent was lifted up in the wilderness) for healing all the ftings and wounds given us by fin and Satan? O then look up to him with the eye of faith for healing. This is the great remedy of God's contriving and providing, put ftrong confidence in it, and look to it with hope and expectation: Never diftrüft the virtue of God's remedy, nor defpair of healing from

it, however deep your ftings, or large your wounds be: For Chrift was lifted up to be a remedy for the chief of finners, 1 Tim. i. 15. and none ever perifhed that looked to him. Was Chrift willing to be lifted up to fuffer for you ? Then let your hearts be lifted up to ferve and obey him, like King Jehoshaphat, whofe heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord, 2 Chron. xvii. 6. Lift up your heart with your voice in his praife; fpeak of the glorious honour of his Majefty, and make known his mighty acts: Obey his commands, and particularly his dying command: to remember him at his table with activity and delight: Go with lifted up hearts to a communion table to remember him, that went fo willingly to be lifted up on a bloody crofs for you. The ancient exhortation to communicants was Surfum Corda, "Lift up your hearts to meet with a lifted up "Jefus."

ADVICE XI.

From Exod. xiv. 15. Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.

THIS is the anfwer of Mofes' prayer for Ifrael when in a great strait at the Red fea. It is faid, he cried to God, yet we read not of one word he fpake: He only lift up his heart to God, who well understands the language of the heart. Mofes' filent prayers of faith prevailed more with God, than Ifrael's loud outcries of fear. A believing communicant may, in a strait, cry to God, in prayer, without fpeaking a word; fo did Mo fes here for fainting Ifrael. When they came out of the land of bondage, and fled from Pharaoh's tyranny, the Lord ordered them to march towards the fea; but now when they are near to it, and fee Pharaoh's migh ty army pursuing, and close at their heels, they are in a great ftrait what courfe to take, they think certainly they must turn either to the right or left hand to make

their escape from Pharaoh; no, faith God, fpeak to them to go ftill forward, as ftraight towards the fea, as if they faw a fleet of transport fhips there waiting to take them in. O, might they think, "This is a hard "command, go forward, when we fee nothing but the "deep devouring fea before us; as good go back to "the Egyptians, or ftand still until they come up and put us to the fword, as go forward into the fea and "be drowned: Will the deep fea have any more mercy on us than the cruel Egyptians." But faith the Lord, make no objections, ask no questions, let the people go forward, obey my command, and truft me with

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their lives.

Obferve here, O timorous communicant, O doubting believer, when you are in fears and straits with respect to the management or fuccefs of your duty, you are to fet yourselves to obey God's command, go forward in the ufe of means, with a fincere heart, and leave the event to God. You may poffibly, at this time, be brought to the ftraitening cafe of the children of Ifrael, when at the brink of the Red fea, and their hearts in great perplexity, ready to fink within them for fear. Some may be faying within themfelves, How fhall fuch a vile black unworthy creature go forward to the Red fea of Chrift's blood, who hath both fpilt it and despised it? How fhall I, after all, venture to go forward, to wash or bathe my unclean foul in it? Well, it is God's plain command to you to go forward to it, however heavy laden you be with guilt, fee 1 John iii. 23. Mat.

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xi. 28. John i. 29. others as vile and black have obeyed his command, have gone forward to this Red fea, and been washed in it, fee 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, 11. yea, we read, Acts ii. 36. of three thoufand of thofe who actually embrued their hands in this blood, who were washed by it. How wonderful is its virtue! It is able to take away the fins of a whole world, and much more the fins of a few; therefore do not, O finner, rebel against God's command any longer.

Again, confider what is God's fpecial command to

thee at this time, namely, Do this in remembrance of me; his precept is plain and exprefs to keep up the memory of his love to lost men. Can you think to look on his face with comfort at the laft day, if you have no pleafure to remember him now: Surely his prefence will be terrible then to thofe, to whom his memory is not delightful now. But you may have straits and difficulties about this duty. O, faith one, "My ftrait is great, "I know not what to do; whether to stay back from "God's holy table, or go forward: If I ftay back, I "difobey 'my dying Saviour's command, to fhew forth "his death in this manner: If I go forward unwor"thily, I contract the guilt of his body and blood, and "eat and drink my own damnation. Alas, what fhall "I do? my need of Chrift and his blood is fo great, "I cannot think of staying back; and yet my prepa "ration is fo little, I know not how to go forward."Ah, my unworthiness is great, how shall I go to the "table of fo great a king in the state and cafe I am in, "fo vile, fo finful, fo indifpofed, fo hard hearted? If "the woman that had the bloody iffue feared fo much "to come and touch the hem of Chrift's garment, how "much more may I who am full of the running if "fues of fin, fear to go forward to touch the facred "fymbols of his body and blood, and put my hand in"to his wounds, and feel the print of the nails?" Come then, unworthy as you are, obey Chrift's com mand, and venture your foul in his hand: Go forward with all the preparation you can attain to, deeply fenfible of your own vilenefs, and humbled for your fhortcomings, trubing in the worthiness of the Lamb that was flain to answer for your unworthinefs, in his blood to wash away your pollution, and in his ftrength to help your weakness. Venture forward, faying, like Jehoshaphat," Lord, I have no ability, no might for "this great ordinance, neither know I what to do; but es my eyes are unto thee, it is in thy name, in thy "strength, and at thy command, that I go forward to "remember a dying Jefus at his holy table. Lord, put